. Ilios : the city and country of the Trojans : the results of researches and discoveries on the site of Troy and throughout the Troad in the years 1871-72-73-78-79, including an autobiography of the author. all the clay and earth for making it hasbeen taken from that place. Further on, in a north-easterly and easterlydirection, the rock has evidently been artificially levelled for a distance ofabout 200 yds. square, and most probably this little plateau has been thesite of the prehistoric city to which we are indebted for the strangepottery found in the tumulus. From the bottom of the shaft I
. Ilios : the city and country of the Trojans : the results of researches and discoveries on the site of Troy and throughout the Troad in the years 1871-72-73-78-79, including an autobiography of the author. all the clay and earth for making it hasbeen taken from that place. Further on, in a north-easterly and easterlydirection, the rock has evidently been artificially levelled for a distance ofabout 200 yds. square, and most probably this little plateau has been thesite of the prehistoric city to which we are indebted for the strangepottery found in the tumulus. From the bottom of the shaft I excavated two galleries, which crosseach other, and of which each has a length of 18 ft. 4 in. The excavationof these galleries was a very dangerous work, the earth being so loose andfull of huge stones, that I could not proceed a single foot without sup-porting the roof and both sides of my underground passages with beamsand planks. Owing to the nature of the soil, I could use large picks debris, carried in baskets from the galleries into the central shaft,were poured there into the large basket and drawn up by the most curious object I found was the fragment of a vase-bottom. No. 1517. Fragment of a Vase-bottom, with signs, found in theTumulus of Besika Tepeh. (Actual size. 1 epth, 43 ft.) (No. 1517), with incised signs, filled up with white chalk, of which I senta copy to Prof. Sayce, who answered me: I do not think it is a realinscription, but it may possibly be a bad attempt to imitate a cuneiforminscription seen by some one who did not understand the latter, like thebad copies of Egyptian hieroglyphics made by the Phoenicians. Chap. XII.] POTTERY OF THE BESIKA TEPEH. 667 In the layers of yellow clay I never found anything, whilst the layersof dark earth, which appear to have been cut away from the surface ofthe ground when the tumulus was made, contained large masses of frag-ments of very coarse as well as of better pottery, of a red, brown, yellow,
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